CANALS TO THE DEAD SEA. 
525 
freely into the basin ot the Dead Sea, they would raise its sur¬ 
face to the general level oi the ocean, and consequently flood 
all the dry land below that level within the basin. 
I do not know that accurate levels have been taken in the 
valley of the Jordan above the Lake of Tiberias, and our infor¬ 
mation is very vague as to the hypsometry of the northern 
part of the Wadi-el-Araba. As little do we know where a 
contour line, carried around the basin at the level of the Medi¬ 
terranean, would strike its eastern and western borders. We 
cannot, therefore, accurately compute the extent of now dry 
land which would he covered by the admission of the waters 
of the Mediterranean, or the area of the inland sea which 
would he thus created. Its length, however, would certainly 
exceed one hundred and fifty miles, and its mean breadth, in¬ 
cluding its gulfs and bays, could scarcely be less than fifteen, 
perhaps even twenty. It would cover very little ground now 
occupied by civilized or even uncivilized man, though some of 
the soil which would be submerged—for instance, that watered 
by the Fountain of Elisha and other neighboring sources—is of 
great fertility, and, under a wiser government and better civil 
institutions, might rise to importance, because, from its depres¬ 
sion, it possesses a very warm climate, and might supply South¬ 
eastern Europe with tropical products more readily than they 
can be obtained from any other source. Such a canal and sea 
would be of no present commercial importance, because they 
would give access to no new markets or sources of supply; but 
when the fertile valleys and the deserted plains east of the 
Jordan shall be reclaimed to agriculture and civilization, these 
waters would furnish a channel of communication which might 
become the medium of a very extensive trade. 
Whatever might be the economical results of the opening 
and filling of the Dead Sea basin, the creation of a new evap- 
orable area, adding not less than 2,000 or perhaps 3,000 square 
miles to the present fluid surface of Syria, could not fail to 
produce important meteorological effects. The climate of 
Syria would be tempered, its precipitation and its fertility in¬ 
creased, the courses of its winds and the electrical condition 
